Unexpected News

Today started off intense and never let up.

I've been going on and on about the relaunch of cnn.com, and the new layout and functionality is finally in place! The new site is up so please, go check it out. I've been fretting a little over it, but the CNN Relaunch turned out to be the least of my worries.

I found out last night that the son of a former co-worker of mine who was on the road to recovery from leukemia, has had a relapse. After 3 years of vast improvement, a test happens to come back showing signs that things are not good for him right now. My heart broke when I found out about this. Things would only get worse as the day went on.

My hubby was home all day with the kids while I was at work. He called me earlier this evening to tell me that he found out that his aunt that lives in Mobile passed away recently. As in a month ago. It's a tough blow to find out that someone you love and cherish has passed away. But to find out a month later? Everyone else has already had a chance to grieve together and help one another cope with the loss. Not only that, but this is a painful reminder of how we have lost touch with the family in Alabama. We used to be so close to them. Now, we don't talk at all, clearly.

Being busy and sacrificing money and time with family for a couple of years with the reward of future financial gain will be a good thing. But some of those sacrifices just don't seem worth it.

I really need some rest. I'm completely wiped out from today. Tomorrow is an even earlier day at work for me, if you can believe that. Doing it all over again, so I'm off to bed now. Hopefully my heart won't ache as much in the morning. Doubtful.

Sit down and relax

I just got back from a massage! My company is offering free 15 minute massages to the employees who've spent the past few months working on the big relaunch coming up this weekend. I've gotten massages before, but this one was a chair massage. OMG! I feel like a million bucks right now. Unfortunately I spent the first 8 - 10 minutes trying to relax and get used to a complete stranger within a few of me, let alone actually touching me. But the last 5 - 7 minutes I was relaxed.

There were two therapists doing massages at the same time, so my co-worker I got ours at the same time. When I was done, the therapist told me that I was EXTREMELY tense and that I was really carrying a load in my shoulders. My co-worker's therapist spent the whole time telling her to try and relax, so apparently she was very tense as well. I take this to mean one of two things. Either they're right and I need to figure out a way to afford weekly massages, or they just want to convince us of such so that they can line their pockets. I think it's probably a little of both. Maybe if I sacrifice the $7 per day that I was spending on lunch and use part of that toward a weekly 30-minute massage I can do it! I'm kidding, by the way.

Either way, I'm about to run off to the gym now and workout while my muscles are so relaxed. That may be an odd thing to do after a massage, but if I don't do it now I won't do it at all today.

Happy Birthday!!

My daughter turned 2 years old today! My son serenaded her with "Happy Birthday To You" first thing this morning. Where is my video camera when I need it? TOO CUTE! It's been a typical laid-back Saturday morning today...nice and relaxing. We're having a very small party at my mom's. My sister's kids will be there too, so we're looking forward to having a blast.

I'll add pictures from the birthday get-together to my facebook account sometime over the next couple of days.

Summer Solstice thoughts

We're at the midway point. Plenty of markers for this special day...

Today is the longest day of the year. If you go outside at 9:15 pm tonight, it will still be bright enough for you to get in a good run or walk the dogs.

The first day of summer. This is a big deal to me only because my company observes a policy known as "Employee Summer Fridays" in which everyone leaves by 3pm every Friday during the summer. If you aren't able to leave by 3pm, you get the time back to use for PTO. But more importantly, we also have ice cream parties every other Friday during the summer. Yes, I am 8 years old.

30 days left until the release of "...Deathly Hallows" I've already pre-ordered my copy of the new Harry Potter via Amazon. That means that I have 30 days beginning today to finish "...Half-Blood Prince". I've been waiting to read it because I've heard that the ending is intense, and I didn't want to have to wait forever for Book 7 to come out once I finished.

I wish everyone a pool-hopping, BBQ attending, shorts-wearing, frozen-lemonade drinking, 311-concert crashing, happy, safe summer!! :-)

Super excited!

Today is already slated to be an extra awesome day. One of my good friends is coming up to CNN to have lunch with me! I haven't seen him in almost 2 years, and right now I feel like a kid on summer vacation! He and I have so much catching up to do, and we usually spend the whole time we're together laughing about everything going on around us. :-) I'm always in a much lighter mood after I've been around him.

My husband and I call 2007 the "Year of Reconnecting". There are a lot of people that we lost touch with after we got married, and ESPECIALLY after the kiddies came along. Our whole life went down a new path.

Well, now that so much time has gone by, I realize the emptiness of being apart from some of these people, and I have decided to make a huge effort to have them in my life and to be a part of theirs. I am excited about the present and future of renewed fun, bonding, and adventures!

Please Pray

Nine firefighters lost their lives while saving others from a fire in Charleston, SC overnight. This is such a heartbreaking story. There are a lot of families hurting right now and they need our prayers.

Lord, please bless those in uniform (and their families) who continue to risk their lives for us every single day.

Story [CNN.com]

Imus Haters...brace yourselves

It just won't go away. I posted months ago about Don Imus and his infamous "nappy-headed hos" comment used against the Rutgers Women's basketball team during their championship game against the Tennessee Vols. Just to reiterate, I dislike Don Imus and his nasty comment. Did I think he should have lost his job over it? Absolutely not.

Soooo...let's see if the "brother" in the clip below(well known comedian DL Hughley) loses his job or any endorsements (if he has any) over HIS comment about the same young ladies. Wow...talk about an outrageous double standard coming to bite the world in the butt. We will find out soon enough how (if at all) this one will be addressed.

Note: PROPS to Pastor Kyev Tatum and a few other members of Servant House Baptist Church for taking to the streets about this. At least some people are consistent and not selectively outraged about things.

Summer - 3 days away!

Thought I'd update the blog with what the Gill's are up to now that a new season is upon us. Mostly for myself so I'll have something to look back on as time moves forward.

The hubby finished up his 1st year of law school. Last week he began a summer internship at a small firm in DeKalb county. Yes it's a paid internship(thank you, Jesus!). :-) He is in court a few times a week, preparing motions and all kinds of "lawyery" stuff that I don't understand. 1 year down, two more to go!!

The kiddos are still as precious and adorable as ever. My son is 3 1/2 now and my daughter will be 2 in five days! *alert...bragging mom moment** My son knows about 25 of the 43 presidents of the US, all of his numbers from 1 - 50, several of the US states by geographic location, his alphabet (lower and upper case), how to spell a few words, and a host of other countless things! My daughter loves to talk, can count to 12, knows her alphabet, and is a joy to all of those she is around.

My parents are leaving in a few weeks on a trip to Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. This will mark the end of my daughter staying with my mom everyday while I'm at work. Once my parents return, my mom plans to begin a tutoring service for high school students. My mom can't stay retired for anything. :-) I love that she's so active; hope I stay that way as I get older. Cassie will start attending Olan's school in a few weeks. I'm praying that this works out well...for the other kids at the daycare, I mean. :-)

And I talk about myself enough on a regular basis so that it's not necessary to mention what's going on with me. Except for this: I've gotten hardcore about my fitness again. I went to the gym everyday last week, and will go everyday this week as well. Beginning tomorrow. Off to get a cheeseburger and fries from Wendy's now...gotta go.

Convenience or Laziness?

On Friday (yesterday), Chris and I spent the better part of the day cleaning most of the house. Not just picking up a few things here and there. No,I'm talking sweeping everything from under the beds, sorting, organizing, steam cleaning the carpets, etc...there's a little more to do this afternoon, but the house is a much happier place already.

During our cleaning session, I came across two remote controls. I couldn't place them at first, but I eventually remembered what appliance they are used for. You see, our central AC went kaput halfway through Spring. It's a high priority to get it fixed, but it will cost at least $1000 to repair. At least. So while we are saving up for that on our single income, we bought a couple of those cheap window AC units people used to have back when central AC was a luxury. I didn't even know they still sold those, but ROCK ON! We even have an oscillating fan in front of the AC unit to circulate the cool air throughout the room.

Anyway, I wake up this morning and decide to start blogging. After about 15 minutes of typing I find that I am getting chilly from the AC. But I was in the middle of writing out my thoughts, and I didn't want to get up from my bed to turn it off at the moment. That's when I look over at the nightstand and see the aforementioned remotes sitting there. I reach over, and press 'Power' on both of them and voilà! The AC unit AND the fan stopped churning simultaneously. After I did this, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. I'm living in the stone age with the window AC unit and oscillating fan, but I have remote controls to power them on and off at will.

Note: You sharp-minded readers may be wondering what I was already typing about before all of this happened, as the subject of this blog is about events that occurred while I was already blogging! Very quick, you are. I'll publish that blog in a little while. :-)

Father's Day fun

...is this Sunday! We're planning a great day on Sunday. Picnic for the dads (mine, the hubby, and my brother-in-law)...should be a great time if the weather permits.

This commercial is my favorite Father's Day commercial to date. Well, maybe second to the Tiger Woods commercial.

What's a mom to do?

What a day! I picked my son up from school yesterday only to be told that he has pink eye. I noticed that his eye was slightly red when he woke up yesterday, but I figured that he may have slept hard or something. When he woke up this morning, he couldn't even open his eye until after I washed his face. I took the day off from work and kept the kids home with me. The following is a sample of what my day was like:

MOM!! MOM!! MOMMY!! WAAAAAH!! Let's watch Spongebob!!! No, Barney!! Turn on the Backyardigans...Flashcards...where are the flashcards?!!! And that was just during breakfast. My son literally followed me everywhere I went in the house. I didn't have one single solitary moment to myself today. Not one. He wouldn't even take a nap. When I took him to his room and left him there, he just called my name for about 60 solid minutes.

Later in the afternoon, the kids and I went to the urgent care facility for Olan to be seen by the doctor. He literally screamed his way through the entire appointment. The doctor even seemed taken aback. It's always telling when a doctor seems surprised at a child's behavior. Sigh.

It turns out that he has both pink eye AND an ear infection. Poor kid. No wonder he has been so clingy today. I have a splitting headache right now. I'm pretty hungry, but I don't have any energy to even nuke anything in the microwave. Looks like I'll be home with my son again tomorrow. Thankfully, the hubby will be home as well, as he already scheduled to have that day off. Hopefully the medicine will kick in overnight, and my little munchkin will be feeling a little better in the morning.

By the way...my daughter was a total champ today. She's the baby...not even 2years old yet, and I usually have to reign her in and chase behind her whenever we go somewhere. She was AWESOME today! Made things so much easier for me. Right now? She's calling my name over and over from her bedroom. A mommy's job is never done.

Sigh.

RIP Don 'Mr. Wizard' Herbert (1917 - 2007)

I used to LOVE watching "Mr. Wizard's World" as a youngster. I went into high school 8th-grade chemistry with a pretty rock solid science foundation thanks to Mr. Wizard. It's really tough when you find out that television icons from your childhood have passed on. I remember how I felt when I find out that Mr. Rogers of "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" had passed away. A part of who I am today is due to a few of these individuals that had a positive impact on my childhood learning.

I pray for comfort and healing over his family and other loved ones.

Story [CNET.com]